AOV: The Big Empty
by NeroBron
Summary: Lonely, quiet and not the most friendly, Roy is just about ready to give up on everything as he returns for his second year of highschool. But, on what he thought would be another first day back, he meets some girls that seem to genuinely want to be his friend. Now he must survive highschool, and maybe more, with a sizable group of friends that are all just as strange as him!
1. Beginning

I was once told that a drowning man is not troubled by rain. I didn't understand what that meant for the longest time, but then, I started to drown… not literally, no. I mean, I started to drown in my own emotions. Feelings of… not really helplessness, but the feeling that nothing I could do would really change my situation. Kind of a feeling of "damned if you do, damned if you don't," and that never feels good, as I'm sure you could assume. It kind of brings on this strange mixture of anxiety and depression, like I want to do something, but everything I could do wouldn't have any effect so I'd be better off just not doing it altogether. That's a horrible way to live, I know, but that's how I was living at the time.

It was early in the morning, far earlier than I like, but I knew that I had to drag my ass out of bed at some point before one of my older brothers did it for me. And by that, I mean they would literally drag me out of my bed and onto the floor. Yeah, none of them were particularly nice when it came to waking me up for school. I got up and pushed myself to my feet, slowly proceeding to walk over and turn on the light. Putting on my glasses, some of my usual sweatpants and a plain black T-shirt, I looked at myself in the mirror hanging above my dresser. Predictably, I looked like shit. I had bags under my eyes and a resting facial expression that was cold and rather uninviting, to put it lightly. "Let's get this shit over with," I sighed to myself. Grabbing my pill bottles, I grabbed my two pills and put them in my pocket. All I needed now was a drink to wash them down.

I left my room and walked down the hallway into the main room of the house. Basically a huge open room where we had everything, kitchen counter and accompanying parallel island counter, couch and TV and a big dining table tucked into the corner not too far from the house's entryway. Even with all of that, there was still quite a bit of open room. Of course, that room was basically most of the house.

As soon as I walked in the room, one of my older brothers turned away from the stove to face me with his usual stupid, semi-smug smirk. "'Morning, Roy," he started. "So, I'm guessing you're ready for another fun-filled year in that wonderland we call high school?"

"Fuck you, AJ," I spat. It was far too early in the morning for his poorly-timed wise-ass comments and he damn well knew that. He threw up his hands as if he were giving up and turned back to the stove to continue making breakfast for himself. I wandered over to the refrigerator and grabbed the carton of orange juice out of it. I took my pills out of my pocket, tossing them into my mouth and drinking some juice straight from the carton to chase it down. Of course, my more competent older brother, Espen, noticed of this as he came into the room.

"You know, we do have glasses that you could pour juice in rather than just drinking straight from the carton," Espen said, glaring at me with his standard deadpan expression. I'll admit, him being in a suit and tie made it slightly more intimidating, but I really didn't care either way.

"I know," I responded. "This is just faster."

"Whatever." Espen shook his head slightly as he turned towards the door. "Let's just go."

I grabbed my backpack from the spot near the door, where it'd sat for the whole summer, and slung it over my shoulder. "Try not to kill anyone on your first day back!" AJ called back at me. I flipped up my middle finger as I opened the door to leave. He just rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to the stove.

* * *

I sat in the car silently as Espen drove towards the school. I was lucky enough to have my school be in the same direction as his job, so he was able to take my every morning without issue. He looked over at me for a moment to see me resting the side of my head on the door, looking out the window. "So, what are you gonna do this year, Roy?"

"Whatever I feel like doing… Jesus," I remarked.

"Okay," he said sarcastically. "I was just wondering since last year you did nothing, and the year before that you did nothing, and the year before that-"

"I did nothing," I cut him off. "I know."

"No, actually, that year, you did things," he corrected me. "You know, things involving interaction with other people and not isolating yourself from everyone else."

"Well back then, there were people around me that I didn't loathe," I pointed out.

"I know you don't hate everybody there, it just seems like a lot of people," Espen responded. "Look, your only friends from back then aren't around anymore. That doesn't mean you can't make new ones."

"Nobody fucking talks to me, man!" I exclaimed.

"That may have something to do with you never talking to anyone else." Espen was getting rather irritated at this point. He drew in a deep breath. "Look, there are some things that you really can't just expect to happen. Just be yourself and someone is bound to like you at some point."

"Right," I muttered, a hint of sarcasm in my voice.

The car came to a stop in the school's drop-off area, which was rather empty seeing as class didn't start for quite a while. While Espen could take me every day, he had to do so early. I didn't mind that too much, though. It sure beat the hell out of walking. As I got out of the car, Espen called out to me, "Hey!" I turned to face him.

"What?"

Giving me a concerned look, he told me, "At least have an okay first day back, alright?"

I looked back at him. "No promises," I replied, knowing that he hated it when I responded like that. He rolled his eyes before I slammed the door and he drove off to work. With that, I turned and headed into the school building.

* * *

I was rather lucky to have my daily schedule that year start with something like history. Not because I like it, in fact I absolutely loathe the subject of history with every fiber of my soul, but because even if I was too tired to pay attention, the information never really changes so it's extremely easy to catch up if I miss something. This particular morning, however, I was fully awake and alert, sitting practically alone in the classroom with nearly a half hour before class even started. Hey, I may get there early, but again, better than walking.

Anyway, as I sat there and thought to myself about what this year was going to be like, I started getting some good ideas for lyrics, to which I pulled out my special green notebook and a pencil. This little green notebook held dozens of poems and lyrical compositions. I know, you'd probably expect half of them to be me feeling sorry for myself, and a little bit of the earlier stuff I wrote in there was along those lines, but for the most part, I really didn't care enough to feel sorry for myself. After all, what the hell would that do other than make me feel worse than I already did? Loneliness and self-pity may seem like a winning pair, but they really aren't. Either way, everything written in it reflected my thoughts and feelings at the time of writing, so it was always from a genuine place in my heart. Opening the notebook to a blank page, I started writing down the idea I had gotten. As soon as I started writing, I could feel it flowing onto the page like it only does when it's something incredible. I was about four lines into writing it down when I heard someone come in the door to the classroom. I looked up to see something… different.

She stood in the doorway, wearing a small purple zip-up dress under what looked like a shrunken hoodie that only went down to about… three-fourths of the way down her ribcage? It was hard to tell. She was very short, under five feet tall for sure, and she had such a small childlike body shape that it was hard to estimate exactly where that little hoodie ended. Regardless, it was most definitely not the most unique thing about her appearance. Her hair was a short, straight mess of warm, light purple. In it, she had two little hair clips shaped like old-era game controller D-pads. Her eyes shared a very similar color to that of her hair, and they were filled with an aura of excitement and enthusiasm towards whatever life might throw at her.

Following right behind her was a taller girl with a much more relaxed and almost borderline nervous look to her. She wore what looked like a white sailor's uniform made to function as a dress, with purple outlines on the buttons, pockets and edges. This color pattern continued with her boots, which had a stylized 'N' emblem at the center of the strap as well. Her hair was the same lilac color as the other girl's, only it was longer and looked much more well-kept. Along with that, she, too, had a little D-pad hair clip on, but only one rather than two. Another color similarity between the two girls was their eyes, only the tall girl's eyes gave off more of an aura of… anxiety? Possibly nervousness? It was hard to tell. All I could tell for sure is that she appeared nervous about something, I'm assuming it was just that it was her first day, but you never know.

That's another thing. I should mention that I was positive of something else: these two had to have just come here that year. I was in a sophomore history class, so they couldn't be new freshman, and I would've remembered seeing them if they were there the year before. This had to be there first day at this school overall, so my guess was that was what the tall girl was nervous about.

The short one gave a smile as she looked out over the empty room and took in a deep breath through her nose. She then gave an exaggerated sigh of pleasure as she glanced back to the girl behind her and asked "You smell that?"

The tall girl looked confused. "Uh…"

"That, Nep Jr., is the smell of learning!" the short one stated confidently.

I'll give it to her; her entrance got my attention. Not for very long, but she did catch my attention. I proceeded to turn my attention back to the notebook in front of me. As I continued to write, I could see the short girl out of the corner of my eye, excitedly strolling towards me with an almost alarmingly carefree look about her. She proceeded to sit down at the desk directly to my right.

I had a few things go through my mind at that moment, but none of them proved important as the short girl spoke up. "Hiya! I'm Neptune," she said in a relaxed tone, "and, from today on, I guess I'm your new neighbor in this class. What's your name?"

I was tempted to question who in the hell names their daughter 'Neptune,' but I remembered how my dad named me and my brothers so we would 'never get mixed up with anyone else just because of your name.' I guess that concern might have stemmed from the fact that his first name was John.

I looked up at her to see a rather warm, expectant smile. I wasn't used to that, to be honest. Most people who grew up in this general area didn't see me as someone worth talking to. I had to admit, this was a nice change of pace, but that didn't make me any less skeptical of how friendly this girl was being towards me. "I'm Roy," I responded rather plainly.

"Well, Roy," she continued. "It's nice to meet ya. I hope we can be friends. I am new here, after all, and I'd hate to be as friendless as a certain Noire I know."

I must have looked totally confused (which I was), because Neptune's taller counterpart spoke up. "Oh, Noire is one of the people in our friend group." I nodded in understanding. I mean, the fact that this Noire was within a group of friends would kind of imply that she is not, in fact, friendless, but I just assumed that it was kind of a running joke in their group or something. "I'm Nepgear, by the way," the tall girl added. "It's nice to meet you!"

"Likewise," I returned, trying to be polite.

"Anyways, whatcha writin' there, Roy?" Neptune asked, standing up to look over my shoulder at my notebook.

"Something that isn't exactly ready for the eyes of others at the moment," I said rather bluntly, trying to cover the pages with my arms. "So, I'd appreciate it if you uh... stopped looking."

"Oh, yeah, sure." Neptune sat back down. "My bad. I was just curious." Her tone of voice hadn't really changed from that relaxed kind of drone.

"It's alright," I sighed, waving it off.

"Neptune, don't pester anyone too much on your first day," a rather regal female voice spoke out firmly. I looked over to see a girl with fair skin and candy red eyes wearing a button-up dress that was mostly dark blue and white with some red and a tad of gold lining. In the back, she had a bow right above her hips. It seemed to match the bow she had on her collar, as well as the ribbons that held her long black hair in twintails. She also wore boots that went up past her knees, held in place by garterbelts. It gave her a pretty original look, I'll give her that.

"Aw, come on!" Neptune shot back, raising her voice to a much more full tone. "I was not pestering him! Was I?" She looked over at me expectantly.

She was right, I really wasn't feeling bothered by her at all. Was her entrance to the classroom a bit unusual? Hell yeah. Was her approach to an introduction a little awkward in nature? Sure, but I couldn't have done any better. Was her looking over my shoulder at my notebook irritating? Yeah, a little, but I can't really get mad at her or anything for it. It was just curiosity and she didn't know that I didn't want people looking at it. "You really weren't," I answered.

"See?" Neptune said triumphantly. "Maybe the fact that you can't tell the difference between making conversation with someone and pestering them is why you don't have any friends, Noire."

"Stop saying I have no friends!" Noire shouted in frustration. I awkwardly turned back to my notebook and continued writing.

"Sorry about this," Nepgear said rather nervously.

"Oh, it's fine," I told her. "I'm used to much more violently profane arguments at home, so this is nothing compared to that."

"Are you alright?" Nepgear asked with a hint of concern. "We aren't bugging you, are we?"

I looked back up at Nepgear. "Not really, no. Why?"

"You just look... kind of upset," she answered timidly.

"Oh," I reacted. "This is just kinda how I normally look, don't worry about it." I attempted to give her a halfway decent smile. Nepgear smiled back and gave me a little nod. ?" It was at this point where my skepticism had faded. It's hard to explain, but I could just tell by the way Nepgear was talking to me that she was actually interested in making friends with me. I figured that Neptune must have been genuine about it, too. I actually felt a tiny trace of excitement at the thought of having friends again, to be honest. It'd been roughly two years since I had anybody I was comfortable talking to and it was getting rather hard to keep on going like this.

I will admit that I was a little nervous of what reaction I would get from everyone. For all I knew, they could've hated me by the end of the week and I'd have been back in the same situation that I'd been in before. But, considering that was really the worst that could happen, that also meant I really had nothing to lose with this in the long run.

I decided that now was probably an okay time to ask a question that had been on my mind ever since Neptune entered the room. "Nepgear, exactly how old is Neptune?"

"Hmm? Why do you ask?" she curiously countered.

"She just looks a little… young to be a sophomore in high school."

"Oh, that makes sense," Nepgear responded. "Believe it or not, Neptune's actually my older sister."

"Bullshit," I said in disbelief. Nepgear almost visibly winced at hearing me say that. "There's no way she can be older than you. You're, like, a full foot taller than her!"

"I'm not kidding," Nepgear assured me. "It makes sense why you'd think that's not true, but I promise you that Neptune really is my big sister."

There was a brief moment of silence before I spoke up again. "So, how many people are in this friend group of yours?" I asked. It felt like a major deviation from the subject at hand, but it was another question that I had on my mind, this one more of just from my own curiosities rather than from blatant confusion over the situation.

"Uh," Nepgear stuttered. "Counting me and Neptune there's a total of ten of us. We can introduce you to them if you'd like."

"Really?"

"Sure," Nepgear said, smiling warmly. "I'm sure they'd all be happy to know someone who isn't also new here."

They were all new to the school? Had I been fully aware of how odd that seemed, I would've probably marked that as a big red flag, but I was a bit lost in other thoughts regarding the situation to notice anything I would've considered unusual. I slowly looked over at Neptune. Sure enough, she and Noire were still arguing with one another. I couldn't hear them, though. I couldn't hear anyone. All I heard right then was the music in my head as I began to wonder just what I'd gotten myself into.


	2. The First Day

Let's get something straight here: I hate history as a school subject. As just a subject, it's pretty interesting, don't get me wrong, but as soon as you hire some monotone, tight-ass shitwad to teach it, that's when I have a problem with it. My history teacher for this year was no different than the usual. Mr. Grans was a tall, bald and boring man. Imagine Nicolas Cage if he had everything that made Nicolas Cage fun to watch sucked out of him. What made that worse was he sounded and even looked a bit like Nick Cage, too… if he'd gone bald, of course, but still.

For what seemed like far, far longer than it really was, I sat there, half listening to Mr. Grans talk about what we'd be going over throughout the year. I was, at the same time, finishing off writing down those ideas I'd had before class. I did look at one point to see what my new acquaintances were doing. Nepgear and Noire were listening intently, even though this information wasn't exactly important, nor was it interesting. I glanced over to my side and saw that Neptune was doodling mindlessly on a random piece of notebook paper and paying absolutely no attention to anything the teacher was saying. Based on my first impression of her, I wasn't exactly surprised to see this.

Class ended and I silently got up and dragged myself to the next class on my schedule, "Introduction to the Human Body." Sounds like it'd be pretty interesting, right? Well, it was recommended to me by Espen who said, and I quote, "it's a little fucked up, but it's also an easy passing grade." That was basically the only reason why I took the class.

That class began shortly and I was immediately greeted by the teacher giving their introduction to who they are. My gaze started to wander as I lost interest in what was at the front of the room. I very quickly saw a girl who caught my eye very quickly. She caught my eye because she bore a striking resemblance to Noire. She had long black hair held in twintails with big ribbons and rather fair skin, just like Noire did. This girl, however, wore a rather plainly colored, black and white dress that had an emblem at the chest. That emblem connected it to a collar that went around her neck to hold the dress in place, leaving her shoulders bare. Her eyes were also red, albeit darker than Noire's. This girls eyes were more of a crimson red. She appeared to be wearing black fingerless glove as well. It raised several questions for me, but they weren't ones that I was willing to ask someone I didn't know. I wasn't the best at starting social interaction… or partaking in it at all, for that matter.

After that was my third period class, Algebra I. Now, normally I'm kind of… well, fucking awful at math, but algebra happened to be my one exception. I don't know why, I just wasn't nearly as bad in algebra as I was in something like, say, geometry. Either way, I took a seat in the back corner of the room and sat back, waiting for the class to start. As I looked over the room, someone came in whose attire seemed a bit… much for what was technically a normal day of school.

This was someone who looked a bit too old to be in high school. She was tall and had long, blonde hair that went about three quarters of the way down her back. She also had some pretty large endowments that were rather conspicuous, even through the chest of the long, emerald green dress she was wearing. She wore long gloves that were white with a bit of very light green thrown in with a flashy pattern to make it look classier. She also wore a green and white collar that had a big blue gemstone outlined with gold at its center. In addition to all of that, her blue eyes and vibrant smile showed an unending confidence that probably helped her carry herself in such a refined manner.

She made her way to a table that was also in the back corner of the room, but on the opposite side of the room that mine was on. After her came another eye-catching girl, and this one made me wonder, just how many people had purple hair in this place? She was more of dragging herself than anything, though. I could tell by her gentle magenta eyes that she wasn't depressed or anything, just tired. She had unkempt, fluffy purple hair, a darker shade than Neptune or Nepgear's hair, that went down to about shoulder length on the sides and was put in a single large braid in the back. That braid went down a little ways past her waist and was tied off with a big bow near the end. As for clothes, she wore what almost looked like a normal school uniform with a purple button-up jacket going on over a white undershirt and a plaid magenta skirt covering down to her mid-upper legs. She dragged herself over to a seat near the door and practically collapsed in it, proceeding to probably fall asleep.

After her, one more girl came in that looked more out of place than anyone else. She was young, short and looked like she was about to start crying out of straight fear of her surroundings. She wore a fluffy baby blue jacket that looked like it would be best suited for snowy weather. Her hair was straight and light brown, coming down like a drape around the back and sides of her head, leaving a large opening for her face which housed her piercing, vibrant blue eyes. Those eyes looked like they were about to start pouring tears out of them at any moment now. It honestly made me feel kinda bad, but as far as I was concerned at the time, there was nothing I could do.

Class commenced and, it being a math class, nothing interesting happened on the first day. Surprising, I know. That one girl with the fluffy purple hair slept through the whole class period while the younger girl and the blond one listened to the teacher talk about things that I really didn't find to be important at all. I mean, it wasn't difficult to figure out what we were studying in the class exactly. The class was straight up labeled as "Algebra I."

That class came to an end, as they normally do, and I unceremoniously dragged my ass to fourth period. My fourth period class was… ugh… Freshman English. Okay, if you're laughing at that… don't laugh at that. It wasn't that I was bad at writing, in fact I'm perfectly capable of writing above the level that they were expecting of me, I just couldn't stand the teacher and that resulted in me making all essays and answers as sarcastic and smart-assed as possible. I think you know how that ended considering I'm in Freshman English as a Sophomore.

Anyways, I was lucky enough to not get placed with the same teacher again, and instead I was placed with a middle-aged man named Mr. Leston who looked like he actually cared if we liked the class or not. This being an English class, it had a little bit more substance to its first day than most other classes. It didn't have any conceptually new substance, but at least it was something. We began going around the room saying names and something about ourselves, you know, the usual shit. I'll say that I like it more than writing it down on a notecard, but regardless, it's something that is, at this point, just plain unoriginal.

Anyways, everyone was taking turns when it came to two people who, once again, stood out… I say two people, but I had seen one of them before. It was the little girl in the blue coat sitting closely with another girl who wore an almost identical pink coat. They were most definitely twins. They both had the same color hair, the same height, the same bright blue eyes, everything with the exception of their apparent demeanor, slight hairstyle differences and the color of their clothes was the same between them. One wore a fluffy pink coat while her counterpart wore a fluffy baby blue coat. I realized what I recognized those colors from and quickly hi A… I don't know why the hell I'm making that reference. Nobody's gonna get it. Of course, if you somehow do get that reference… damn.

Either way, both of them looked far too young to be in high school, but I shrugged it off, remembering that Neptune was not only in high school, but she's also apparently Nepgear's older sister. Those two bits of information made this situation appear far less far-fetched to me. Besides, they were probably Freshman as well.

"I'm Ram!" the girl in the pink coat said.

"And… I'm… Rom," the girl in the baby blue coat followed softly.

"And we're twins!" the girl in pink took over again. The teacher looked confused at the fact that they both answered together, but he shrugged it off, deciding not to pursue it. It went on to the next person, who I only now realized looked surprisingly like the previous two girls.

She was slightly taller, but still extremely short in comparison to the average person. Once again, she had the same hair color as those twins, only her hair seemed to be somewhat shorter, and she wore a slightly similar coat, as well. It was big, white and lined with a thick layer of fur on the edges. It was far too big for such a small girl and so she seemed to let it hang down a bit from her shoulders. Maybe that's how the coat was made to be worn? I dunno. Under it, she wore a small white dress that ended at around her mid-upper legs. She had radiant blue eyes, much like the other two girls did, only her eyes were filled with a look of serenity so potent that you could swear that she'd reached Nirvana ages ago.

"I'm Blanc," she spoke softly, but firmly. "And I'm their older sister." Well, that explains a lot. Question is, why the hell was she in a freshman English class? She had been reading a book this whole period, and by the looks of it, it was at least 900 pages long. I couldn't see what book it was, but it didn't look like it was anywhere near Freshman level.

As I was questioning this thoroughly, I didn't notice that it came around to my turn. Everybody was looking at me, including the aforementioned girls. This came to my attention after the guy next to me lightly tapped me with his elbow. I hesitated for a moment before speaking, "I'm Roy and… I'm a Sophomore" I'd said the very first thing that came to mind. I heard someone behind me stifle a laugh. I turned around and glared death at them.

"Okay, but I want to hear something about you as a person," Mr. Leston said.

I sighed. "Fine, uh… I'm a guitarist." I threw out pretty much the only thing that I thought would've worked there.

Mr. Leston smiled and asked, "What kind of music do you play?"

I fuckin' hated this question. "Whatever music I like," I told him, cutting nearly all of the previous pleasantness out of my voice, which wasn't too much to begin with, but it was still a noticeable change. I think he got the message, because he quickly moved on to the next person. As he kept going, I could see Rom and Ram talking quietly between each other, looking over at me once or twice as they did. As curious as I was about what they were saying, I'd heard enough shit from people over the years to know that it's probably better if I just didn't ask.

Eventually, another strange girl got a turn. This girl was most definitely too young to be in high school. She looked like a grade schooler, an early middle schooler at the very most, and even that was pushing it. Even those two twins looked like they were at least over four feet tall. This girl was more in the range of three and a half feet tall. I would've called bullshit, but that wouldn't really have done anything. It sure did raise a hell of a lot of questions, though. Namely, how did a girl this young get into high school? Was she really that smart? Was she, like, twice as old as she looked? This feels redundant, doesn't it? I'm sorry if it does, I just still kind of can't believe it. I looked around the room to see if anyone else had taken notice of this and, to my surprise, not one of them were confused by this. I mean, I know that most of these people aren't too bright, but I know they aren't blind. Why weren't any of them questioning how old this kid was?

She was small, had blonde hair and blue eyes, and she looked really confident for someone who looked so out of place. Her hair was slightly short of being shoulder-length, and there was a little bit of it tied back by a hair tie that was threaded through what looked like two oversized red wooden marbles. She wore a yellow hoodie with black stripes on it. The hoodie's sleeves were a bit long for her, but not so long that you couldn't see her hands at the edge of the sleeve opening. The shorts she was wearing looked to be a part of the hoodie, as well. She smiled brightly. "I'm Peashy!" she announced. "And I'm really strong!" I could've sworn that I heard at least one girl in the corner of the room let out an 'aww,' at that answer.

I thought that was a rather questionable answer, personally, but then again, I didn't really know the girl at all, so I couldn't say for sure if it was true or not. Mr. Leston apparently decided to just not ask any further questions because he just moved on to the next person. While I had a rather sizable list of questions that I felt were very relevant, mostly in regards to the girl's appearance, I didn't really fault him for his decision to continue. Class proceeded to go by at a snail's pace after that, as it often tends to do, and finally the bell rang.

* * *

Finally, lunch came. For me, it was less of a time to eat and more of a time to just relax. It wasn't just that I wasn't willing to eat the school's lunches, but it was also because one of the medications I take just makes me… not hungry. I walked out into the commons of the school which was filled with students. I was preparing to go and sit alone outside like usual when someone grabbed me by the forearm out of nowhere.

I jumped, swung around and found myself looking at a smiling Neptune. "Jesus Christ," I huffed, trying to breathe steadily. "You're gonna give me a goddamn heart attack!"

"Sorry, sorry," Neptune apologized rather unapologetically. "I was just gonna take you to come sit with us."

"Sit with who?" I asked, almost spitting out the question.

"Me, Nepgear, Noire and our friends!" answered Neptune happily. "Come on!" She started walking, not letting go of my forearm all the while. While I wasn't exactly happy that she was dragging me without asking, I remembered that I really had nothing to lose in the situation, so maybe it really wasn't a bad thing. I'd heard that life grabs you by the wrist and directs you where to go, but I didn't think 'life' meant 'a really short, overly-enthusiastic girl with purple hair.'

We approached a table that had three open seats, the rest being filled by… basically everyone that had stood out to me throughout the day… in fact it was everyone that stood out to me throughout the day. "Girls, this is Roy. He's me and Nepgear's new buddy!" I flinched a little at that. It made me a bit uncomfortable to be called their friend. Partially because it felt like it was a bit early to be saying that, but mostly because of some problems that have happened in the past.

Anyways, I sat down as I gave a little "hey."

"Hello, again, Roy," Noire greeted. Sitting next to Noire was the girl that resembled Noire. Now that they were right next to each other, it was a little easier to distinguish the two, but they still did look quite a bit alike. Noire turned to her doppelganger and told her, "Uni, don't be rude, introduce yourself."

The girl gave a nod and then looked over at me. "I'm Uni, Noire's little sister. It's nice to meet you." Well, once again, that explained a lot.

From directly across the table, the tall blond girl spoke up in a very firm and confident voice. "My name is Vert. It's a pleasure."

Next was the girl to my left, the fluffy purple-haired one. She spoke very gently and slowly, as if she were so tired that she couldn't even speak right. "I'm Plutia." She gave me a little smile.

"I'm Peashy," the little blond girl chirped, raising her hand up. I still had a plethora of questions in regards to how this girl got into high school, but I didn't feel like I was anywhere near being in the position to ask them, so I just kept my mouth shut.

The next one who spoke up was the sister of those two twins. "I'm Blanc," she said firmly but quietly. "I remember seeing you in English class. You were the one that smart-mouthed the teacher, weren't you?"

"That's me," I confirmed with a slight sigh.

"Oh, he's the one who said he's a guitarinist!" the little one in pink blurted, pointing at me.

"Oh… yeah…" her blue-clad twin added softly.

I gave a small laugh at the way the pink one had said that. "You mean guitarist," I corrected her.

"Yeah, that!" she responded. "I'm Ram!"

"And I'm… Rom…" the blue one joined in. So blue was Rom, pink was Ram. I committed that to memory so I wouldn't forget it later.

"And you two are Freshman?" I asked.

"Yeah!" Ram once again blurted.

"Okay, wait, if you're freshman, then… why is your older sister…"

"I specifically asked to be placed in that class so I could look after them," Blanc explained.

"Oh," I muttered. The conversation carried on from there as if I weren't even there. As nervous as I was, I also felt a little like I was actually welcome here, and that was nice considering that at this time I'd normally be alone outside on the stone steps that lead down to the school's track just listening to music on my phone. They all began to converse between each other while I remained silent. To my left, Plutia was talking with Rom and Ram, her rate of speech still noticeably slower than everyone else's. To my right was Neptune, who wasn't talking much. It wasn't because she had decided to stay silent or anything, she was just too busy shoveling food into the hole in her face. It was almost scary how much she seemed to be enjoying the school's lunch, but at the same time it was kind of impressive in its own way. I realized that I had spaced out a bit and refocused in on what was happening around me.

"But I still can't believe I was placed in Junior math," Nepgear said. "It really doesn't feel like I'm that far along."

"I'm surprised that I was put into the Freshman's math class!" Neptune spoke up, gulping down a mouthful of… something. Whatever it was, there was none of it left in front of her. "I'm way better than that!"

"Oh really?" Noire doubted. "Just be glad you placed in almost all Sophomore classes, Neptune. You barely look old enough to be in high school at all."

"Okay, maybe I don't look old enough to be here," Neptune started, "but I'm definitely smart enough to be in high school."

"Could've fooled me," I uttered. It was kind of an instinctual reaction to make jokes like that sometimes, even if it did seem a little off to some people. Most people I was used to at this point essentially had a telephone pole up their ass and wouldn't take any kind of joke as a joke, no matter what kind, but Neptune seemed alright, so I figured she'd be fine with it. Everything fell silent as everyone looked over at me. I started laughing a bit, partially because of the look on Neptune's face, partially to let them know I was joking. Neptune quickly started to laugh along with me.

"Aw, Come on, Roy," she said through her laughter. "Have I really made that bad of a first impression on you?"

"No," I answered. "Worse," I started to laugh again, this time joined by some of the others at the table. Noire stayed totally stone-faced whereas Uni started trying to stifle laughter. Nepgear looked like she was giggling a bit, too.

"Come on, seriously, though," Neptune urged me.

"I'm kidding. If my first impression was really that bad, I wouldn't be here," I explained. "If you want my genuine first thoughts, though, it's that it honestly seems like there would never be a dull moment around you, regardless of if that's a good or a bad thing."

Uni laughed a bit at this. "I don't think that Noire would disagree with you, there."

"I don't," Noire stated. "Neptune is annoying and distracting and immature and childish,"

"You see, you're no fun, Noire," Neptune interrupted. "Maybe that's why you don't have any friends."

"Stop saying I have no friends," Noire demanded, looking genuinely mad.

"Yeah, I guess that's not even true anymore now that you have Roy," Neptune admitted, almost sounding disappointed at this.

"Uh... yes! Exactly. Even if it were true before, which it wasn't, it wouldn't be true anymore now anyway," Noire reiterated. It was clear that she was insecure about it having been true. I don't blame her too much, though.

Shortly after that exchange ended, the bell rang and everyone got on their way to fifth period. I won't lie, leaving that table, I felt pretty damned good. I'd actually had a good laugh with some people my age... mostly, at least, and they were people that I didn't loathe and weren't total sticks in the mud. I think that was the first time I'd smiled that hard since I saw Black Sabbath on their last tour, which wasn't all THAT long ago, but still, it was a while ago and it was pretty damned hard to beat.

Fifth period for me was P.E. I could write an essay on why I hate P.E. classes. I could write a series of essays and compile them into a book, entirely on the subject of why I hate P.E. classes, but I'm not going to do that, because essays aren't fun. Either way, I wasn't alone in my hour-long torment session at the very least, as I spotted Neptune, Blanc, Plutia, Peashy and Uni all in there with me. It was pretty nice to know that I would at least have some people I could talk to during this class.

That's basically all that happened in fifth period (a single 100 word paragraph ain't much, but it still covers just about everything that happened in that class), so moving on to sixth, the mandatory Sophomore health class. My school district prides itself in a few things. Namely: Its focus on business (and in turn, total neglect of arts funding), its high ranking on standardized tests (and in turn, putting shitloads of pressure on students to do well on those tests) and its extensive health curriculum designed to keep students mentally, physically and sexually healthy... which I've always found sort of ironic considering how they treat the students in every other fucking class.

For that class, though, I was given a student-favorite teacher, Ms. Vetala, and I was in there with everyone from lunch, save for Rom, Ram and Peashy. After getting an overview of what we'd be going through during the year, the class didn't actually seem too bad... but I had been wrong on that many a time before, so I wasn't about to get my hopes up.

* * *

Lastly, my final period of the day was a class that I was forced to take by 'recommendation' of the councilor. It was a class they called 'free work period.' In short, it was for kids who wanted time to do their homework in the library at the expense of a year-long elective. It still got you an elective credit, though, so I didn't ever really see their logic behind it. Regardless, I was put in there because I was kind of known for... never doing my homework, so I was put in here so I would, and I quote, "have no excuses."

To my surprise, everyone except for Noire and Blanc were in there with me. I suppose it would've been significantly more strange to find Noire and Blanc in there, but still, I would've expected people like Uni, Nepgear and Vert to not need a class like this at all. The twins, Neptune, Plutia and Peashy, I could kind of understand why they took it because it is basically advertised as a free period. Really, you just can't be on your phones or anything like that. That'd make it a lot worse if the whole class didn't take place in the goddamn library.

I just kind of sat there for a while, letting my thoughts wander about aimlessly as I often let them do, until I heard a voice next to me snap me back to reality. "Aren't you bored just doing nothing?" I looked over to see Uni sitting beside me, a rather large book, that appeared to be nothing more than an encyclopedia detailing specific guns, in front of her.

"I'm fine," I told her, trying my best to smile at her.

"Are you sure?" She asked. "I mean, It's not like I really care or anything. I'm just asking to be nice."

Well, if it ain't straight-up fuckin' obvious to you that she was lying, god help you, because that attempt to hide her emotions was sad to say the least. "Of course, it's only polite," I indulged her with a drone. "But I'm sure." I looked over at her book again. The open page displayed a modern-looking shotgun. The only words I could seem to make out were "20 Gauge" and "Nova," but that was enough for me to know what gun it was anyway.

Uni noticed that I was looking at the book. "Oh, are you interested in guns, too?" she asked, almost sounding hopeful.

"Yeah, I am," I responded.

"How much do you take interest in them?" She questioned. "I'm… kind of a gun fanatic. Kei says it almost comes off as unhealthy."

"Kei?"

"Oh, she's me and Noire's guardian here," Uni clarified.

I gave a nod in understanding. "Well, I just find them to be really interesting pieces of machinery," I elaborated. "Some have really interesting designs to them, especially a lot of older ones." I wouldn't really call myself a gun nut or anything, but I play enough video games that I'd just kind of taken an interest in some of the guns themselves, so eventually I started looking up a few of my favorites and from there, they just kind of interested me.

"So…" she started. "What's your favorite?"

"My favorite? Oh," I realized. She meant favorite gun… yeah, I know that sometimes I'm not the brightest, but to be fair, I wasn't particularly expecting this question in specific. "The Welrod," I stated confidently. Ever since I played Sniper Elite V2, that'd been my favorite, hands down.

"Welrod? I'm not familiar with that one," Uni admitted.

"Well, they only made, like, twenty-eight hundred of them," I said. "And it was kind of a unique pistol, because it was specifically made to be naturally silenced. It's also one of the few bolt-action pistols that were actually worth something."

"Wow, that actually sounds like a really interesting gun," Uni remarked. "Why didn't they make more of them?"

"Because it was only really useful when being stealthy," I clarified. "It has a tiny magazine and a pretty crappy range, so it being small and silenced by design were basically its only major advantages."

"Huh, I'll need to look that one up later," she thought out loud.

"What about you? What's your favorite?" I returned.

"I don't really have one," she admitted. "There are too many that I like for me to pick a favorite."

"Ah, I get it," I nodded. "If you chose one favorite, you'd be leaving out a bunch of others that you like just as much, right?"

"Exactly," she confirmed.

"I know the feeling," I confessed. "I'm the exact same way about both games and music."

"Really? You don't really strike me as a music person," Uni said skeptically.

"I'm actually a massive music buff," I continued. "I'm the type of person that binges entire discographies in one sitting, but normally while playing a game that doesn't require too much attention, just so I'm doing something while I listen."

"Hm, so you're a music lover and a gamer, huh?"

"Yeah, or at least that's two things that I am," I pointed out. The conversation from there just kind of awkwardly ceased, both of us falling silent. She didn't seem to care, though. She was looking pretty wrapped up in that book.

Moments later, it suddenly dawned on me that I had actually just had a genuinely enjoyable conversation with one of my peers for the first time in almost a solid year… I then realized that I was actually wrong about that, I had one earlier that day when I was joking around with Neptune at lunch. I'd had two genuine conversations with people who I actually wanted to talk with. Then I remembered talking to Nepgear before first period beyond introductions and such. That was three! Were the tides truly turning?... I mean, I didn't really give a shit because I figured I'd just be living with it either way, but I just kind of briefly asked myself that as kind of a rhetorical question, you know, as it's meant to be. I'm also posing that question here for you to think about. Engaging with the reader and such.

I snapped out of my realization when the bell rang and everyone started getting up to leave. I grabbed my backpack and prepared to start my rather lengthy walk back home when Neptune and Nepgear approached me. "Aww, goin' home already?" Neptune whined.

"I'm afraid so," I announced. "I have a few things I need to do at home, so I can't really stick around today." Espen had a rather large meeting scheduled today and that meant there was about a fifty percent chance that it would not go well and he would get absolutely hammered tonight. I needed to be there to make sure he didn't do anything stupid. After all, I can't count on anyone else at home to help out.

"Oh," Nepgear quietly said, clearly disappointed by this.. "I… I guess we'll see you tomorrow, then?"

"For sure, yeah," I smiled, giving them a confirming nod in addition to my answer. It'd been a long time since I'd heard anyone ask if they'd see me the next day out of something other than just general politeness.

"Well, then," Neptune interjected, "See ya tomorrow, Roy." As I made my way out of the school, I actually began to feel a little anxious. I was already looking forward to seeing them again tomorrow. I had to say, it felt pretty good.

* * *

 **A/N** Yes, it has been, like, two months. Life likes to get in the way like that. Been sitting on this pretty much finished chapter for at least a month, though and in the time between then and now, not much has changed, even after rewriting it once entirely. Either way, it's here now and, dammit, that's what matters... I think. Either way, I won't waste too much of your time with details about my life... unless you want that... in which case, I could write more author's notes like this...

P.S. The voice actress for Rom is in Persona 5 as both of the Velvet Room attendants. It's amazing.


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